Leominster taxi service offers rate cut for non-seniors

Monday

Jan 28, 2013 at 9:00 PMJan 28, 2013 at 10:03 PM

By Paula J. Owen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The License Commission tonight took under advisement a request for rate adjustments by the city’s only taxi service and asked that the company provide its policies regarding seniors and people with disabilities.

The matter was brought before the License Commission, which regulates rates for livery and taxi services in the city, by resident James V. White, a 70-year-old disabled senior, who complained about overcharges. Companies must submit their rates to the License Commission for approval. Several years ago, a flat rate for seniors of $2.50 a ride was set in the city.

Despite a hearing on Jan. 14, where commissioners told Ken’s Taxi /Classic Cab to stop charging seniors more than the approved rate, company business manager Kenneth Bergeron Jr. said tonight that seniors were being charged $3 and up for fares.

The company’s new proposed rates, Mr. Bergeron said, would lower rates for everyone except seniors. Seniors would be charged the same rate as everyone else minus a $2 discount off their total fare, he said.

“You are still under the old rate with seniors,” Commissioner James J. Kelly Jr. said. “You have to make that correction.”

If the new rates are approved, customers will be charged a $5 fare starting at the center of Leominster that will increase by 50 cent increments as they travel through zones throughout the city. The fares for those getting picked up in the city’s outskirts will start at $6.50, Mr. Bergeron said.

Mr. Bergeron said the business is losing money with the current rate for seniors.

“Other than senior rates, everything is cheaper,” he said of the new rates.

Moreover, he said, some customers abuse the discounted rate for seniors.

“Kids take their mother with them to get the senior rate,” he said. “They abuse the privilege. It happens more commonly than not. Three 30-year-olds will take their mom with them to get the senior rate.”

He said the $2 discount is more than what other businesses in the city are doing for seniors. Most give seniors a break of 10 percent to 15 percent, he said.

However, Mr. White, who says he has been overcharged $1,200 by the company the past few years, said he thinks the city should sanction the company for the money it has overcharged people, and has asked the company to write a reimbursement check for the overcharges and donate it to a food pantry in the city.

He said after a Jan. 14 hearing that the company overcharged him, refused to give him receipts and banned him from using the service.

Mr. White said he is putting together a petition to present at the next hearing to urge commissioners not to allow senior fares to increase above $3.

“I think they should be sanctioned for what they have already done to me and all the senior citizens,” Mr. White said after the hearing. “How many people and how many handicapped people have they done this to? They only got a slap on the hand and were told not to do it again, but they continued. I want them to pay for something they’ve been doing for years and are now trying to shove under the door and not take care of.”

Mr. Bergeron said he had “no idea” if owner Robert Soto banned Mr. White from using the service and would provide no further comment.